Could malaria come back to Louisiana?

West Nile is spreading in mosquitoes across Louisiana and throughout St. Tammany Parish.

It’s not the only disease Louisiana’s mosquitoes can carry.

St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana

Louisiana is home to more than 60 known mosquito species.

 

Mosquitoes thrive in Louisiana’s warm, humid climate, where frequent rain and standing water offer plenty of places, and time, to breed. They don’t all carry disease, but the state’s conditions make careful monitoring especially important.

 

West Nile virus, which primarily spreads through Culex mosquitoes, infected 86 people in Louisiana in 2025 and killed four. The state reported more than 1000 West Nile–positive mosquito samples that year, with researchers in St. Tammany Parish noting nearly three times the number of positive samples compared to the year before.

 

Malaria is transmitted by a different species, the Anopheles. Once endemic to the region, malaria is less common in Louisiana today. The mosquitos that carry it, however, are native to the state’s wetlands and remain present.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mosquito-borne illness is rare in America because we led the fight against it

The fight against mosquitoes is a global one, but it starts in our own backyard.

 

Diseases carried by mosquitoes are opportunistic, and the more effectively we fight the disease abroad, the safer we are here at home.

 

That’s why U.S. investments in global health matter. Strong U.S. global health leadership helps prevent infectious disease threats from becoming larger emergencies. For less than 1% of the federal budget, these programs work to prevent, detect and treat deadly diseases around the world—stopping outbreaks at their source and helping American families stay safe at home.

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